Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Christmas is such a magical time for a child. I vividly remember when I was about 4 years old I think. I woke up in the morning of December 24 and I was so excited. Still on my jammies, I was panicking, looking for my Christmas shoes already for our Christmas gathering. I don't know why I thought I was late or something when the party was happening at our house. (Just one of the bits and pieces I remember during my early years as a human being)

I miss the days when I still believed in Santa Clause. My parents and relatives would have us believe that they had Santa Clause picked up from the airport where Santa parked his reindeer. Then all the kids would gather by the Christmas tree, my grandmother would start to play Christmas songs on the piano which signals that Santa Clause is very near. I can still remember my heart racing and my palms getting sweaty. And then we would hear someone ringing a bell. SANTA IS HERE!!!!!!!

Just a few days ago, I recall having a conversation with a friend about how Christmas feels so different as an adult. There's not much magic anymore especially when we face adult challenges. It would be nice to be like a kid again during this time of year. And the smart marketing minds of Seattle's Best are doing something to pull us back to our carefree childhood mindsets!

Seattle's Best Coffee is spreading the spirit of Christmas to us adults and make us feel like kids again!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Every morning, Rain usually climbs on me or Richie to wake us up (I'm not a morning person so yes she's the one who wakes me up haha!) Then she gets off the bed, goes to her milk station, gets a bottle, gives it to me and says "MEK!" (translated as Milk). Then Richie prepares for work, goes to work, I take Rain downstairs to the living room, put out all her toys, put on Sesame Street, and have breakfast as well. She naps after lunch while I work. Then after she wakes up we go back down to the living room and she plays some more while I work at the dining table. It's not much of a routine. You might say it's ordinary. But naturally, my Little Rainbow's smile and little knowledge surprises everyday make every second extraordinary!

October 17, 2013. Rain officially turns 2 years old! On the day of her birthday we didn't really have any huge party planned. Richie was supposed to be in Cebu but due to the earthquake that happened, the trip was of course cancelled. Let's continue praying for Cebu and Bohol! :-(

On a lighter note, we decided to make the most out of Richie's leave by taking Rain out to lunch. We've been wanting to try The Creameryin SM Mall of Asia. (Our experience there soon at The Pickiest Eater!). Rain had fun with the fun set up for the place that's catered towards kids!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

I know I was on a lot of amnesia during that time but I still remember it clearly like it was just yesterday. October 17 2011, was truly one of the best days of my life....

Throughout my doctor's appointments, my OB-GYN kept telling me how smoothly my pregnancy was going. And that I could definitely be able to deliver normally. She also told me that from the looks of it, my little Rain was in the perfect delivery position already and i could give birth sooner than expected. I was scared but I was more excited at the same time. I couldn't wait to finally see my baby in living color. Not just through the black and white sonogram.

Days went by... Weeks went by... Before I knew it, Rain was past her due date. I tell you, those last few weeks of pregnancy are the loooooooooongest. You feel uncomfortable, heavy, and irritable. Why won't she come out already?!? In fact I hold a record with my OB-GYN because she says I'm the only overdue patient she had in a very long time.

October 16, my sweet husband took me to a breakfast buffet. He knew how much I loved breakfast. I ate my heart out. But I had also already noticed that I was feeling mild contractions not too far apart from each other. But I was fine.

That night, i slept very uncomfortably. Like I had menstruational cramps. But i was too exhausted to tell my husband. I would rather sleep it in. Around 6am, I felt the paid grow stronger. It was time.

My calm husband rushed me to The Medical City after confirming with my doctor that I had I should check in already. This was finally the day I had been waiting for!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

I've never really been into cooking. One time I attempted making chicken stock for Rain but instead I ended up with a burnt pot of nothingness. So whenever I try to cook something decent, I need all the shortcuts I can get. That's when Knorr steps in. Knorr really makes cooking so much easier, especially for moms like me who don't know the difference between a red onion and a white onion.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Being a stay-at-home mom may sound easy for other people. I admit even when I was still single, my dream was to be a stay-at-home mom, take care of the household, my husband, and my kids. I thought it was going to be easy and fun because after all I'll just be staying at home. But of course I was wrong. It's not always easy. Yes I'm just at home, working over the net and taking care of my toddler at the same time. Most of the time, I am only able to write one sentence before Rain pulls me away from the computer and wants to be carried or played with. And then when I give her a bath and put her down for a nap, I am only able to nap with her unintentionally for a maximum of 10 minutes while breastfeeding before I wake up and realize there's more work to be done.

My left arm often feels very tired from carrying Rain. And sometimes I also feel back pains from working on the bed beside Rain while she sleeps at night. The computer table is in another room and Rain usually wakes up at night looking for me (and breast milk hehe) so I have to be beside her at night. There are no breaks for me. And it is physically exhausting, even when I am "JUST at home".

That's why when the good people from Bistro Group invited some bloggers to this new salon, I couldn't say no. At first I thought was a massage place. I was wrong. In a way, it's better!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Meet Angelo Abordo. A passionate barista that we met during at a lovely dinner at Hotel Celeste Makati (dinner post coming soon at The Pickiest Eater). A humble-looking guy with mad skills in coffee art! It was my first time to witness coffee art, actually. So needless to say I was really mesmerized!

Oh, and he's not just a professional barista. He's currently a Management Trainee at The Cravings Group. I'm impressed!Check out these beautiful works of (coffee) art he did for us!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Cream Silk will stage a musical show that's one of a kind! It's the Cream Silk Hair Sonata. A star-studded night of beautiful music demonstrating hair strength! Literally! They will feature a 42-piece orchestra, plus a 10-member all-female ensemble all using HAIR BOWS! Unbelievable! This is going to be the World's 1st Ever Hair Symphony Orchestra! It's going to be held at the NBC Tent on October 17, 2013.

This is definitely something you wouldn't want to miss!

Oh and one more thing... Cream Silk has another exciting announcement! Three lucky women can win a glamorous make over plus two exclusive invites to this enchanting event! See the mechanics below:

Fiddling an old phone proved to be good time spent because I was able to reminisce on apps I used before during my pregnancy days. I previously posted Pink Pad (an app I used when we were still trying to conceive) so now let me share with you this pregnancy app called Baby Bump!

I don't know how I could have mentally survived my 9 months of pregnancy without this app. As a first time mom, I was the curious type. And I'm a visual type of person. I wanted needed to know and visualize a sperm's journey so I can visualize myself conceiving. (Yes I can be very weird). So of course I also needed to know exactly how my baby looked like as it develops from a single-celled organism to a healthy human. And this app was the perfect tool! (And yes it's free from the Apple App Store!)

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

WARNING! This post is about girl stuff. Guys, move along! Nothing to see here! Except when you're trying to conceive with your partner for the first time :-)

Time really does fly when you're a first time mom. I can't believe it's already Rain's birth month and that she's turning 2 in a few days. Seems like only yesterday when I would feel a bit bitter towards couples who would send out pregnancy announcements before me ahahahaha... (sarcastic laughter).

I was fiddling with my old iPhone 3G when I saw my pregnancy apps. Yep. I downloaded pregnancy apps. Thank you technology! I'm not kidding these apps helped me big time! Back when we were still trying to conceive, I came across this app called Pink Pad.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

I've always been torn between a super colorful and girly blog design and a white and clean one. In the end, I got tired of too much purple and so I made a simpler one. But yeah I still love purple so the text and tabs are still shades of purple. No web developer hired! Just me! hehehe (Pat on the back). It's just a matter of fiddling with the templates :-)

Monday, October 7, 2013

This has got to be one of the most heart-warming Christmas TVCs I have ever watched. Even just replaying it in my head, makes me cry :') Truly a mother's love is amazingly unconditional! Way to go Eden!!! Thanks to my good friend Melay for sharing this video!

I am eternally grateful for Baby Vision for picking Rina's Rainbow as one of their Blogger Ambassadors! (Yay! Pat on the back) And as a not-so-simple thank you, they have given us our very own Baby Vision unit!!!

I got mixed feelings when I received mine. I was happy of course because I believed in this product. And I'm not just saying that because I'm one of their ambassadors. Really. I think it's such a practical and essential gadget to have in the house for lots of obvious and important reasons. But at the same time, I felt a tinge of nervousness. I wasn't sure if I could assemble it by myself. I might end up breaking it. Richie was at work at that time. And I was way too excited to wait for him to arrive. So I shook off all my doubts and went ahead and opened the box...Here we go! Wish me luck!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Being a work-at-home-mom may look easy from the outside looking in. After all, we're just home all day. Don't need to get up hours earlier to prepare for work. We can take quick naps in the middle of the day if we wanted. We can just watch our favorite TV programs while working. We're just a few steps away from our fridge. You get the picture. But I wish it was that easy. Truth is, I don't event have time to do other important things like play Plants Vs. Zombies except at night when everyone's asleep hahaha!

Excited to check in!

That's why whenever my little family (no pun intended) gets a chance to have a staycation, my answer is always a big HELL YEAH!!! This means relax time for Mommy Rina! And this time we're lucky to be invited back for a second staycation at F1 Hotel Manila! (See our awesome first staycation here).

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

No I'm not excited about Halloween (Okay maybe I am a little bit) but what I'm most excited about is my little Rainbow's 2nd birthday! This little rambunctions toddler is turning 2 years old! Oh my how time flies! Seemed like only yesterday that we celebrated her first birthday! I'm so excited! But...